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1915

?Early 1915 Mary Jane Tolkien, Tolkien’s paternal grandmother, dies.

January 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, As Two Fair Trees, perhaps to celebrate the anniversary of his reunion with Edith. – He revises his poem The Tides, now called Sea-Chant of an Elder Day.

17 January 1915 Hilary Full Term begins.

Hilary Term 1915 Tolkien attends the continuation of A.S. Napier’s lectures on Pearl on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean Museum, beginning 26 January, and on Beowulf on Thursdays and Saturdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean, beginning 21 January. He also attends Sir Walter Raleigh’s lectures on Drama in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 a.m. at Magdalen College, beginning 19 January. If he has not done so already in 1914, he now attends W.A. Craigie’s lectures on Hrafnkel’s Saga on Thursdays at 5.00 p.m. in the Taylor Institution, beginning 21 January. He probably continues to have a weekly tutorial with Kenneth Sisam, and probably attends Sisam’s lectures on English Poetry before the Norman Conquest on Saturdays at 11.00 a.m. in the Ashmolean, beginning 23 January. He possibly attends lectures by Sir John Rhys on Welsh on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6.00 p.m. at Jesus College, beginning 22 January.

Hilary and Trinity Terms 1915 Tolkien is President of the Junior Common Room.

25 January 1915 At a meeting of the Stapeldon Society a member proposes that a key to the baths at Exeter College should be placed in a glass case to provide for the possibility of Zeppelin raiders (presumably, so that the baths can be used for shelter). Tolkien is among those who oppose the motion, which fails. The members strongly disapprove of the curtailment of baths as a method of economy. Tolkien tells the House that the Bursar believes that half the College is unwashed, and if the baths were closed down the other half might become likewise. The minutes record that ‘Class II O.T.C. [Officers Training Corps] in the person of Mr Tolkien then gave Class I and others valuable hints on drilling a boy entitled “Jones best ever ready word of command, always useful, will never wear out, Hip hop!”’ (Exeter College archives).

February 1915 Tolkien reads to the Exeter College Essay Club the essay on the Kalevala he had earlier read to the Sundial Society (22 November 1914).

1 February 1915 The Stapeldon Society meets.

8 February 1915 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. The members discuss the tearing up of troublesome tram lines by the Oxford Town Clerk. They decide that the Secretary should write to applaud his actions, and ask for the gift of a tram rail or even a portion of one.

15 February 1915 The Stapeldon Society meets.

22 February 1915 Tolkien attends a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. The Town Clerk has given them a seven-foot length of tram rail. The minutes of the meeting will read:

On the motion of Mr Tolkien it was carried (a) that it should be present at the last meeting in every term (b) that it should be carried in procession to the new Pres[ident]’s rooms by the first year [i.e. the first-year members] (c) that every Pres[ident]’s name should be engraved upon it. The House then adjourned to the quad and a procession was formed headed by the officers, who were followed by the tram line supported by selected members of the first year followed by the rest of the house in order of precedence, slowly and steadfastly round the quad, the first year stentoriously breathing, the rest all singing a mournful dirge alternating with Tipperary [the song ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’]. When they reached the foot of the staircase enthusiasm grew apace and the line was soon safely deposited under the Pres[ident]’s bed. [Exeter College archives]

March 1915 At a meeting of the Exeter College Essay Club Tolkien reads a further revised version of his poem Sea-Chant of an Elder Day; but when sending a typed copy of the work to G.B. Smith during this month, the title becomes Sea-Song of an Elder Day. Possibly at the same time, he paints in The Book of Ishness a watercolour entitled Water, Wind & Sand (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 42) and inscribes on the facing page ‘Illustration to Sea-Song of an Elder Day’. The small figure enclosed in a white sphere in the foreground of the painting may be the seed from which the ‘Silmarillion’ frame-story emerged, that the poem was the song that Tuor sang to his son Eärendel in their exile after the fall of Gondolin. – Tolkien writes a poem for Edith, Sparrow-song (Bilink) (later simply Sparrow Song). The word bilink will later occur in a lexicon of his invented language Gnomish, in the form bilin, bilinc ‘a small bird, esp. sparrow’.

1 March 1915 The Stapeldon Society meets. – Rob Gilson writes to Tolkien, urging him to attend a T.C.B.S. meeting at Cambridge on the weekend of 6–7 March.

2 March 1915 Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien, urging him to come to the T.C.B.S. meeting. He is sure that he can get him rooms in college. G.B. Smith is to attend, and if they do not take this opportunity Wiseman does not know when the four will be able to gather together again.

6 March 1915 Tolkien having failed to reply to their letters, Gilson and Wiseman send him a telegram, in jest claiming his resignation from the T.C.B.S. unless he appears at the weekend. – In the event, he does not go to Cambridge.

8 March 1915 Tolkien rewrites his poem Dark (first composed in December 1914), now with the alternate title Copernicus v. Ptolemy or Copernicus and Ptolemy. He shares it with Wiseman and Smith, who will mention it in letters of 15 April and ?25 March respectively. – Tolkien attends a meeting of the Stapeldon Society. He is recorded as making criticisms of the minutes.

?10 (possibly, less likely 17) March 1915 G.B. Smith writes to Tolkien (see note) from Magdalen College, Oxford, where he is billeted with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Tolkien has sent him either the whole poem concerning Eärendel that he wrote late in 1914, or the first part to which he will later give the title The Bidding of the Minstrel. Smith thinks that it is very good, except that it tails off at the end. He asks Tolkien to send him typewritten copies of his poems, which after reading he will send on to Gilson if Tolkien wishes. He is having typed the poem he intends to enter for the annual Newdigate Prize for poetry (established 1806; the set topic in 1915 was ‘Glastonbury’).

10–11 March 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon (An East Anglian Phantasy) (*The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon), later prefixed A Faërie.

11 March 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien, adding comments from Gilson as they reread one of Tolkien’s letters. Tolkien seems to have explained that his failure to reply immediately to their letters of 1 and 2 March was due to the fact that he has set a specific day in the week for answering letters. They wonder why Tolkien is so often the one absent from T.C.B.S. meetings, and describe what he missed in Cambridge the previous weekend. Tolkien has evidently suggested a three-day meeting on a weekend early in Trinity Term. Wiseman explains that as his mother is recovering from an operation he does not think that they can meet at his home in London; they might meet instead at a hotel in the Cotswolds. Gilson adds a postscript that in order to obtain leave from the Army he needs to know early to plan his weekend leaves.

13 March 1915 Hilary Full Term ends.

Easter vacation 1915 Tolkien spends most or possibly all of his vacation in Warwick. He probably adds another watercolour, Tanaqui, to The Book of Ishness: this seems to depict Kôr, in Tolkien’s mythology the shining city of the Elves in Eldamar, about which he will write a poem on 30 April. The painting agrees with the poem, but also shows details such as the slender silver tower of the house of Inwë ‘shooting skyward like a needle’ which Tolkien will not describe in writing until several years later in *The Book of Lost Tales.

?15 (possibly, less likely, 22) March 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien. He is very glad to have received Tolkien’s typed verses, and comments on The Sea-Song of an Elder Day, Outside, As Two Fair Trees, and Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon.

17–18 March 1915 Tolkien reworks the latter part of the Eärendel poem of ?late 1914 as an independent work entitled The Mermaid’s Flute. This may be in response to comments made by Smith in his letter of ?10 March.

?Spring 1915 Probably no earlier than spring 1915 Tolkien begins to make a systematic record of his invented language Qenya in a small notebook previously used for notes on Gothic, which he will now continue to use for several years. He will call this *Qenyaqetsa. Eventually the book will contain a phonology and a lexicon, both heavily worked.

22 March 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien, explaining that he can get leave only every other week, and cannot keep holding weekends open for a meeting of the T.C.B.S. He asks Tolkien to let him know at once, if possible, which weekends are best for him.

?25 March 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien. He has shown Tolkien’s verses to their friend and fellow Oxford poet *H.T. Wade-Gery, who thinks Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon and As Two Fair Trees very good, but that Sea-Chant of an Elder Day though good in places is too exaggerated. He also approves of Copernicus and Ptolemy (Dark). Smith sends Tolkien the poem he intends to submit for the Newdigate Prize, ‘Glastonbury’. He will send Tolkien’s poems and his own to Gilson as soon as he can. He cannot arrange a meeting of the T.C.B.S. unless Tolkien comes to Oxford for Easter (Easter Sunday 1915 was on 4 April). He thinks that his battalion will be leaving before 12 April, and he cannot get leave before then.

26 March 1915 (postmark) Wiseman replies to a postcard from Tolkien. He thinks it doubtful that he can attend a T.C.B.S. meeting on 11 or 17 April.

30 March 1915 (postmark) Wiseman, now at Cleeve Hill, Cheltenham, writes to Tolkien, proposing a T.C.B.S. meeting on 18 April in Tolkien’s St John Street rooms. He relies on Tolkien to arrange this with his landlady.

31 March 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien that he has received his poems safely (via Smith) but has not yet read them. Wiseman has told him that a T.C.B.S. meeting on 18 April at Oxford has been settled.

April 1915 Tolkien writes in a notebook, which he dates to this month, notes on The Owl and the Nightingale, chiefly about its vocabulary.

?3 April 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien. He is unwell and sick at heart, but finds consolation in Tolkien’s letters and his comments on Smith’s Newdigate Prize entry. He has now forwarded to Gilson Tolkien’s poems, except the ‘“Earendel” things’. He thinks that Tolkien’s verse ‘is very apt to get too complicated and twisted and to be most damned difficult to make out’; The Mermaid’s Flute is rather bad in this respect (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He would like Tolkien to make his verse more lucid without losing its luxuriance, and suggests that he read shorter lyrics by William Blake as an example of the clear and simple. He does not know if he will be in Oxford on 18 April.

4 April 1915 Tolkien writes to Wiseman (letter not seen).

5 April 1915 (postmark) Wiseman again writes to Tolkien, repeating his message of 30 March.

6 April 1915 Tolkien sends a postcard to Wiseman (not seen).

10 April 1915 Tolkien writes to Wiseman, possibly giving news about Smith (letter not seen). Wiseman replies at once that he now received Tolkien’s messages of 4, 6, and 10 April. He has advised Smith to ask for leave next week.

12 April 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien from his home in West Bromwich that he is on sick leave, and will not be able to attend the T.C.B.S. meeting on 18 April. He is trying to arrange a transfer into a battalion which Tolkien could also join after his examinations. Before Tolkien receives this letter, he sends a telegram (contents unknown) to Wiseman, who finds it disturbing.

13 April 1915 Wiseman sends a telegram to Tolkien in Warwick, asking what arrangements he has made for their Oxford ‘council’ as problems have arisen. In a letter written the same day, he explains that Gilson has been ill since 6 April and it will be very difficult for him to get leave the next weekend. If Gilson cannot attend, Wiseman’s mother would welcome the smaller group at Cleeve Hill; if Smith also cannot attend, the meeting will not take place.

14 April 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien from Marston Green, where he has been on sick leave. He will return to his battalion on Friday, 16 April, and there is no possibility of getting leave for the weekend. He believes that Wiseman is now trying to arrange a meeting in Cambridge.

15 April 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien. The ‘Council of Oxford’ must be abandoned. He has received Tolkien’s poems via Gilson and has nearly finished a musical setting for Wood-sunshine. He asks Tolkien to spend the next weekend with him and his family.

15–16 April 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, Courage Speaks with the Love of Earth. The title will be changed to Courage Speaks with a Child of Earth, and later to Now and Ever and The Two Riders.

16 April 1915 Wiseman receives a postcard from Tolkien indicating that the latter will not be able to visit the Wisemans at the weekend.

?19 April 1915 Smith replies to a note from Tolkien. He is soon to join the 8th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Regiment at No. 1 Camp, Sutton Veny, Wiltshire. By now, he has applied to transfer to the 19th Battalion of the *Lancashire Fusiliers, but is not yet able to join them at their training camp in Wales. He is not sure if he can get Tolkien a commission in the battalion he hopes to join, but will do his best. Apparently in response to doubts expressed by Tolkien, he gives arguments in favour of Tolkien enlisting as soon as he has taken his degree in June: these include better prospects for choosing a battalion, and Army pay.

20–21 April 1915 Tolkien writes this date on a manuscript of his poem May Day (later called May Day in a Backward Year and May-day).

22 April 1915 Tolkien rewrites his poem Evening (first composed in March 1910). Later he will give it a new title, Completorium.

25 April 1915 Trinity Full Term begins.

Trinity Term 1915 Tolkien probably attends the conclusion of A.S. Napier’s lectures on Beowulf on Thursdays and Saturdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean Museum, beginning 1 May, and on Pearl on Tuesdays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean Museum, beginning 4 May. He possibly attends *H.F.B. Brett-Smith’s lectures on Shakespeare on Tuesdays at 11.00 a.m. at Corpus Christi College, beginning 27 April; D. Nichol Smith’s lectures on Dryden on Wednesdays and Fridays at 12.00 noon in the Ashmolean Museum, beginning 28 April; and Percy Simpson’s lectures on Elizabethan Drama on Mondays at 11.00 a.m. in Oriel College, beginning 26 April. He probably continues to have a weekly tutorial with Kenneth Sisam. Although his final examinations are fast approaching he will find time to write several poems in the early part of the term. – Wiseman writes to Tolkien with comments on his poems, which Wiseman has discussed with Gilson this afternoon. He says that Smith is enthusiastic about them, while he himself is ‘wildly braced…. I can’t think where you get all your amazing words from’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He refers to Copernicus and Ptolemy, Earendel, Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon, From Iffley (From the Many-Willow’d Margin of the Immemorial Thames), As Two Fair Trees, and Wood-sunshine. – British, Australian, and New Zealand troops land on the Gallipoli peninsula.

27–28 April 1915 In his rooms at 59 St John Street, Tolkien writes two poems, You & Me and the Cottage of Lost Play (*The Little House of Lost Play: Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva) and *Goblin Feet. The first, evidently influenced by thoughts of Edith, introduces the ‘Cottage of Lost Play’ which will be the setting of much of the story-telling in The Book of Lost Tales. Goblin Feet seems to have been merely a fairy poem written to please Edith. Later Tolkien will come to dislike it, with its images of tiny fairies (rejected in his mythology), and wish that it could be buried and forgotten, but now he submits it (with You & Me and the Cottage of Lost Play) to the annual volume of Oxford Poetry, co-edited by T.W. Earp. Of the two poems, only Goblin Feet will be chosen for publication.

29–30 April 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, *Tinfang Warble, only eight lines long. He will later rewrite and lengthen it.

30 April 1915 Tolkien writes the poem Kôr: In a City Lost and Dead (*The City of the Gods). Its ‘sable hill’ and ‘marble temples white’ (*The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, p. 136) agree with the watercolour Tanaqui painted during Easter vacation 1915.

2 May 1915 Tolkien revises his poem Darkness on the Road (first composed in November 1911). He also makes a fair copy of his poem The Mermaid’s Flute.

3 May 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, Morning Song, a revision of Morning (composed in March 1910). – At about this time he has several of his poems typed by the copying office of William Hunt at 18 Broad Street, Oxford, and the typescripts stapled in a booklet. – The Stapeldon Society meets.

10 May 1915 On one page of The Book of Ishness Tolkien paints a watercolour, another view of the Elvish city Kôr (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 44). The city is framed by two dying trees from whose branches grow a crescent Moon and a blazing Sun – an early, visual expression of the Two Trees which will become an essential feature in Tolkien’s mythology – while in the sky is a single star. On the opposite blank (verso) page of the book Tolkien writes ‘The Shores of Faery’. (See further, entry for 8–9 July 1915 and related note.)

?Mid-May 1915 Probably at about the same time, on the next opening in The Book of Ishness Tolkien paints a watercolour described on the facing page as ‘Illustr[ation]: To “Man in the Moon”’ (Artist and Illustrator, fig. 45), and underneath this inscription he writes out four lines of the poem he had composed in March: Why the Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon. When he comes to describe the vessel of the Moon in The Book of Lost Tales some four years later, he apparently will look back to this picture for inspiration (‘Rods there were and perchance they were of ice, and they rose upon it like aëry masts, and sails were caught to them by slender threads’, The Book of Lost Tales, Part One (1983), p. 192).

?14 May 1915 G.B. Smith writes to Tolkien. He is now in the 19th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, temporarily at the Grand Hotel, Penmaenmawr, Wales. Needing a Welsh grammar, he asks Tolkien to send his (Smith’s) copy if he has it, or to buy him a new one, or to sell him Tolkien’s own Welsh grammar. He expects that Tolkien will send him Georgian Poetry, and asks Tolkien to show some of Smith’s verses to the editor of Oxford Poetry 1915.

17 May 1915 Tolkien apparently is absent from a meeting of the Stapeldon Society, since T.W. Earp will be reported as having spoken on his behalf.

22 May 1915 Tolkien attends an eight-course dinner given by a fellow student at Exeter College, E.E. St L. Hill, for friends before the latter joins the 19th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Tolkien obtains many signatures on his printed menu.

23 May 1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. – W.E. Hall of Exeter College is killed near Krithia, Turkey during the Dardanelles (Gallipoli) campaign.

28 May 1915 The Psittakoi, an Oxford student society of which T.W. Earp is president, meets in R.H. Barrow’s rooms at Exeter College. Tolkien gives a paper on The Quest of Beauty and Other Poems by *H.R. Freston. See note.

?29 May (?5 June) 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien. He has been reading Georgian Poetry as well as another book Tolkien has sent him, apparently on medieval scripts.

31 May 1915 Zeppelins bomb London for the first time.

Before 10 June 1915 Tolkien borrows from the Exeter College library the Cambridge History of English Literature and introductions to Dryden, Keats, and Shakespeare. See note.

?10 June 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien, who has asked advice on being posted to Smith’s regiment. Smith suggests that Tolkien write to Colonel Stainforth of the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers, and ask if Stainforth will consider his application for a commission. If he is successful, Smith will do his best to get Tolkien into his hut and company.

I think it is quite on the cards that I shall be in Birmingham next week, because I have toothache like Satan himself, and must see my dentist. I am strongly in favour of your going to Allports’, Cotmore Row for your clothing. They are no dearer and far and away better than anybody outside London, or perhaps inside it. I have worn these clothes hard and solid ever since I had them, and there are no signs of wearing out. Now you have one uniform, and the most you want is another tunic, a pair of slacks, perhaps a pair of breeches, and perhaps a British Warm. If you can get slacks under 35/- you will be a genius; and breeches are Allports’ extra special article. If you could manage to be in Birmingham during the next week we might visit that distinguished emporium together…. It is most important to buy only the darkest stuffs for breeches and Warm, because the [Commanding Officer] here hates anything light….

As to Camp Kit. You want a bed, bath & washstand (they can be dispensed with), a sleeping-bag (preferably Jaeger, 35/- also) a blanket or two, and a kit-bag. Avoid a ‘valise’. But don’t get these until I let you know the best place, as to wh[ich] I will enquire…. [Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford]

Smith confirms, apparently in reply to a query, that Tolkien’s copy of a book on Keats which he now cannot find was mistakenly included in the parcel of books he sent to Smith.

10 June 1915 Examinations for the Honour School of English Language and Literature at Oxford begin with papers set at 9.30 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. in the Sheldonian Theatre. Each paper lasts three hours. According to the Oxford Regulations of the Board of Studies all candidates in the English School are to take papers 1–4, and those specializing in English Language also take papers A5–9, as well as a tenth paper chosen from a list of Special Subjects. On 10 June at 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper 1: Beowulf and Other Old English Texts. There is no choice of question. The first two questions require translation of extracts, with comments sought on six of the seven extracts in the first question and one of the four extracts in the second question. In addition, there are seven questions on topics such as the historical background of Beowulf, metrical types, and Old English grammar. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper 2: Middle English Authors. There is no choice of question. The first three questions require translation of extracts, with comments sought on two of the five extracts in the first question, one of the six extracts in the second question, and one of the six extracts in the third question. There are also five questions mainly expanding upon the extracts. See note.

11 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper 3: Chaucer. There are ten miscellaneous questions about Chaucer’s poetry and prose, with no restriction on the number to be answered. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper 4: Shakespeare. There are eleven very miscellaneous questions on Shakespeare’s life, times, and writings, with no restriction on the number to be answered. – Smith replies to a letter from Tolkien. He is delighted about ‘a notable achievement’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford), and asks if they should keep it secret from Gilson and Wiseman until it can be shown to them in concrete form. (His meaning, probably, is that both Tolkien and Smith have poems being considered for publication in Oxford Poetry 1915.) He urges Tolkien to write at once to Colonel Stainforth. Smith will be in Birmingham from 16 to 18 June if Tolkien wants to see him.

12 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper A5: History of English Literature. There are twelve questions, with no limit as to the number to be answered: one each on Old English poetry; Arthurian legend; Langland and Chaucer; William Caxton as writer and translator; Christopher Marlowe; Milton’s Comus and Paradise Lost; John Dryden; the heroic couplet; the periodical essay; Thomas Gray; Sir Walter Scott as a novelist; and Wordsworth’s influence on his contemporaries. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper A6: Historical English Grammar. There are seventeen questions, and candidates are asked not to attempt more than ten. While most of the questions are philological, some are about general influences on the development of the English language.

14 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper A7: Gothic and Germanic Philology. The first question requires the translation of four of six extracts from the Gothic Gospel of St Mark. Candidates are asked to attempt no more than nine of the thirteen questions that follow, all strictly philological. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper A8: Old English and Middle English Set-Books. (See the list of set texts above, preceding the entry for 20 April 1913.) There is no choice of question. The first three questions require translation of extracts, with comments sought on four of the five extracts in the first question, and on the single extract in the second question. The third question requires the translation of four extracts, to which questions 4–6 are related.

15 June 1915 The Examinations continue. At 9.30 a.m. Tolkien sits Paper A9: Old English and Middle English Unseen Translations. The first question requires the translation of five Old English extracts, and a short note on the class of poetry to which one of the extracts belongs. The second question asks for five Middle English extracts to be turned into Modern English, and for comments on two of them. The third question asks for a comparison of the language of an early Middle English extract with late Old English, and comments on the chief differences. – At 2.00 p.m. Tolkien sits Paper A10: Scandinavian Philology, his Special Subject. There is no choice of question. The first question requires four passages to be translated into English; the second question, three passages with explanatory notes. Ten further questions are mainly philological, but one is on Old Icelandic metre and poetic diction, and another asks the candidate to contrast Icelandic saga-writing of the classical period with Middle English literature of the same date. – At some date after the papers are completed, Tolkien will also have to face a viva (oral examination).

19 June 1915 Trinity Full Term ends.

?20 June 1915 G.B. Smith replies to a letter from Tolkien, who apparently has written to Colonel Stainforth. Tolkien is sure to get through the medical examination. Smith had an excellent time in Birmingham, during which he made enquiries on Tolkien’s behalf. He writes further about camp kit:

You will want a bed, bath-and-washstand, sleeping-bag, and at least two blankets or rugs; also a hair (not an air) or down pillow, and I rather advise a mattress (cork), and a few other things.

Thus:

Bed

Bath-and-washstand

Sleeping-bag

2 rugs

Down pillow

Mattress

Soap-box

Hooks for tent-pole

Ground-sheet (optional)

To carry these I should get:

1 good sized canvas kit-bag, of the sack shape (the others, like a cricket-bag, are nicer but dear).

1 tin box for underclothes, but don’t spend too much on it, or get too large an one, as they are allowed only within these islands. Do not get a valise, until you are obliged to. I hate them, and mine cost me the hell of a sum. Also bring a small bag or suit-case.

Add 1 steel shaving mirror (price 1/6). All else seems to me unnecessary. My table and chairs I intend to be soap-boxes bought on the spot, also I mean to bring an honest tin bucket.

Now you might get all this very cheap at the Birmingham Household Supply Assn. in Corporation Street. I should perhaps get a Jaeger sleeping-bag at Allports, if you want a nice article. Don’t forget towels and a Burberry. I think I would get everything as cheap as you can: I mean beds, etc. The B.H.S.A. did me quite well.

I think this is all I need tell you at present. Except to keep perfectly calm, and correspond with me as much as possible. By the way, make Allports get you the same buttons as they got me: they will know which they are. And do be careful not to get bright breeches or a bright British Warm. The breeches I have just ordered from them are light-weight Bedford cord, rather nice I think.

I don’t know how you are off for boots. I don’t know a good place in B[irming]ham either. I always buy shoes at Day’s, and they are good enough, but their boots feed me. I have tried Manfield but don’t think much. Maybe you know better than I do. The best pair I have had are a good pair I believe to be K5. I think unless you can find a good make these much-advertised makes are not bad. You don’t want more than 2 or at most 3 pairs, and a pair of shoes.

If you want a wrist-watch, I strongly advise Greaves. They are like Allports, of an assured reputation, and prodigious age. My grandfather went there, which always means that they are rather dear and very reliable. I got a very good 40/- silver watch: I shouldn’t pay less. You may get a gold one for £3 or so: they are very nice. But I wouldn’t worry about luminous things.

Binoculars and prismatic compasses, very dear, may be obtained, unless you decide to wait, which you may quite well do, at Lucking’s. Straight-through Lemaire glasses are supposed to be as good as binoculars, and are less expensive.

Get your Sam Browne made with D rings at the back if you can, so as to carry your mackintosh. And get a mackintosh-carrier fitted with swivels, not a sling. The shops will know what I mean, if you don’t. Get a haversack (a thin and light one) fitted with ditto, to hand on the belt, also a water-bottle; I should get these at the B.H.S.A. also, if possible. The water-bottle is not strictly essential: I’ve lost mine! The idea is you see to attach all these things to the belt when one goes on marches etc. by swivels: not to have them slung independently over the shoulders. But don’t worry if you can’t get these in B[irming]ham: just leave it, and don’t get any at all. Except of course your Sam Browne, which can be altered afterwards…. [Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford; see note]

28 June 1915 Tolkien applies for a temporary commission in the regular Army for the period of the war. He lists his service in the Oxford University Officers Training Corps since October 1914, and in the King Edward’s Horse from October 1911 to January 1913. He requests to be posted to the 19th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, though the form makes it clear that there is no guarantee of appointment to a particular unit. – Smith, now at Brough Hall Camp, Catterick Bridge, near Richmond in Yorkshire, writes to Tolkien. Colonel Stainforth evidently has offered Tolkien a place in his battalion, and Smith urges him to write again to Stainforth, to learn if he wants Tolkien to join the unit at once or wait until gazetted (i.e. until his commission is made official by announcement in The Times). He pledges again that he will try to get Tolkien into his company, but doubts that he will succeed. Tolkien can bring a book or two and some paints with him when he enters the Army, as long as they are portable.

29 June 1915 Tolkien has his Army medical examination. He declares that he has never suffered from any serious illness or injury.

30 June 1915 Captain Whatley of the Oxford University Officers Training Corps certifies Tolkien’s Army application. Tolkien is accepted and given £50 to buy a uniform and equipment. He has to wait a few days before his commission is gazetted.

July 1915 Tolkien spends time in Warwick and visits his relatives at Moseley and Barnt Green. He probably also visits Father Francis Morgan in Birmingham. – Tolkien writes to Rob Gilson. In the event, he will not receive a reply until September.

2 July 1915 A list of candidates for the Literis Anglicis examination, Trinity Term 1915, includes ‘Tolkien, Joannes R.R.’ under Classis I (First Class). The list is signed by A.S. Napier, *C.H. Firth, D. Nichol Smith, and *H.C. Wyld. An announcement of Tolkien’s First Class Honours will appear in the Times for 3 July.

4 July 1915 Smith sends congratulations to Tolkien at 57 Emscot Road, Warwick on ‘one of the highest distinctions an Englishman can obtain’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

8–9 July 1915 Tolkien writes (or possibly revises) a poem, The Shores of Faery, putting into words the scene he had painted two months earlier in The Book of Ishness (see entry for 10 May). It refers to ‘the two Trees naked are / That bear Night’s silver bloom, / That bear the globed fruit of Noon’, and to Eärendel, ‘one lone star / That fled before the moon’. The ship of Earéndel (spelled thus) and the Two Trees appear, as well as significant names such as Taniquetil, Valinor, and Eglamar. Possibly around the same time, certainly not much later, Tolkien writes the poem into The Book of Ishness, on the page facing the painting, blank except for the words ‘The Shores of Faery’. Probably soon afterward he makes slight changes to the manuscript, then records the poem in emended form in a notebook of fair copies, with the date ‘July 8–9 1915’. With the latter manuscript is a prose preface in which Tolkien describes Eärendel as ‘the Wanderer who beat about the Oceans of the World’ and eventually launched his ship on ‘the Oceans of the Firmament’ but was hunted by the Moon and fled back to Valinor where he gazed at the Oceans of the World from the towers of Kôr. Tolkien will later inscribe typescripts of the poem ‘Moseley & Edgb[aston] July 1915 (walking and on bus). Retouched often since – esp[ecially] 1924’ and ‘First poem of my mythology Valinor [?thought of about] 1910’. See note.

9 July 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, The Princess Ní. He will inscribe a later typescript ‘Moseley B’ham [Birmingham] Bus between Edgb[aston]. and Moseley July 1915’. – G.B. Smith writes to Tolkien at Abbotsford, Moseley, Birmingham (the home of Tolkien’s Aunt Mabel and her husband Tom Mitton), again suggesting that he ask Stainforth what he wants him to do, and giving him more advice about equipment. The War Office will write to him when he is gazetted. He is very pleased that Tolkien got a First at Oxford. He suggests books that Tolkien should bring with him: one on oriental painting; 1914 and Other Poems by Rupert Brooke, and anything else by Brooke; Georgian Poetry; Browne’s Religio Medici and Urn Burial; Sir Philip Sidney’s Defence of Poesie; and Sir Francis Bacon’s Essays. He should get the earlier books in editions with old spelling. – The War Office writes to Tolkien c/o Father Francis Morgan at the Birmingham Oratory. Tolkien has been appointed a temporary Second Lieutenant in the New Army and has been posted to the 13th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, a reserve training unit; but prior to joining his battalion he is to attend a class of instruction at *Bedford, and is to report to a Colonel Tobin at 20 de Parys Avenue, Bedford on 19 July between 2.00 and 4.00 p.m. He is to provide himself with bedding and to join in uniform (if ready). He should apply to his Army agents for his outfit allowance but must pay his own travelling expenses. – When he receives this letter Tolkien is very disappointed that he has not been posted to the same battalion as Smith. He writes to Smith to inform him, and also to Christopher Wiseman, telling him of his posting and that he will be visiting relatives in Moseley and Barnt Green.

11 July 1915 Tolkien drafts and probably sends a letter from Abbotsford to a Mr How at Exeter College. He has to report to Bedford on 19 July so will be unable to receive his degree on 20 July. He will be sending a cheque to cover what he owes for battels and asks what ‘caution money’ he needs to pay to keep his name on the College’s books and eventually receive an M.A. He also asks how he should authorize the transfer of the Junior Common Room bank account to the new President of the JCR when one is elected; uncertainty as to who might be in College next term or whether such an official would be needed had made it impossible for him to settle the matter before he left. – Christopher Wiseman writes to Tolkien. Having seen a notice that the Navy wants mathematicians as instructors, he is now awaiting the formal notice of his appointment from the Admiralty. He asks to see more of Tolkien’s poems.

13 July 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien at Abbotsford, Moseley, Birmingham (forwarded on 15 July to Tolkien at the Incledons, Barnt Green). He advises Tolkien to write to the Colonel of the 13th Battalion, and to Colonel Stainforth of the 19th, asking if his posting to the 13th is a mistake.

c. 13–14 July 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien. Wiseman and his mother will be staying in Bromsgrove for about a week; he and Tolkien must spend some time together, and his mother insists that Tolkien and Edith join them for tea at Barrow’s Stores, possibly on 15 July. He asks if Tolkien can shorten his visit to Moseley and go to Barnt Green earlier, so that they can go walking for a day. He will ring Tolkien the next evening. (There is no evidence that Tolkien and Wiseman were able to meet as Wiseman suggests, though it would have been possible before Tolkien had to leave for Bedford on 19 July.)

13–14 July 1915 Now at Barnt Green, Tolkien writes a poem, The Trumpets of Faery (later The Trumpets of Faerie), describing a procession of Elves winding its way through woods. He probably also begins to work on the first version of another poem, *The Happy Mariners, using in part the verso of his draft letter to Mr How written on 11 July.

16 July 1915 The War Office issues Tolkien’s commission as a temporary second lieutenant in the Infantry. See note.

17 July 1915 Tolkien’s commission is announced in the Times’ ‘London Gazette’ column.

18 July 1915 G.B. Smith, who has heard nothing further from Tolkien, writes to him at Abbotsford, Moseley, to cheer him up.

19 July 1915 Tolkien begins Army training at Bedford. He is billeted in a house with other trainee officers. – R.W. Reynolds writes to Tolkien. He comments on poems Tolkien has sent him: You & Me and the Cottage of Lost Play, The Shores of Faery, Kôr: In a City Lost and Dead, and The Princess Nî are mentioned. He finds in them echoes of Icelandic sagas, William Morris, Rudyard Kipling, and Walter de la Mare. – Probably after he begins training at Bedford, Tolkien writes a poem, Thoughts on Parade.

?23 July 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien, probably in reply to a letter. Tolkien can still try to get a transfer after his training, if both commanding officers agree.

24 July 1915 Tolkien completes the first version of his poem The Happy Mariners, which he dates to 24 July. He will inscribe a later version ‘Barnt Green July 1915 and Bedford and later’, which suggests that he began the poem when he was at Barnt Green earlier in July and continued to work on it after reporting for duty at Bedford. Elements and imagery of The Happy Mariners, such as the white tower in the Twilit Isles that ‘glimmers like a spike of lonely pearl’ and ‘Night’s dragon-headed doors’ (Stapeldon Magazine, June 1920), will come to figure in Tolkien’s mythology.

26 July 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien, in reply to a card. He suggests that Tolkien and Edith visit the Wisemans in London on some weekend after about 14 August.

August 1915 While still at Bedford Tolkien revises his poem The Trumpets of Faery. – After his initial instruction he joins the rest of the 13th Battalion in Lichfield, *Staffordshire. He apparently is billeted in an encampment outside the city. He does not feel much affinity with his fellow officers, or share their taste for ragtime music; nor does he enjoy the constant drilling and lectures. He will later write of ‘these grey days wasted in wearily going over, over and over again, the dreary topics, the dull backwaters of the art of killing’ (quoted in Biography, p. 78). He spends some time reading Old Icelandic so as not to forget his studies. He will recall being in a dirty wet marquee ‘crowded with (mostly) depressed and wet creatures … listening to somebody lecturing on map-reading, or camp-hygiene, or the art of sticking a fellow through … [when] the man next to me said suddenly in a dreamy voice: “Yes, I think I shall express the accusative case by a prefix!”’ (*A Secret Vice, in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, p. 199) – someone else interested in inventing languages. – At some point during his training Tolkien specializes in signalling. By the beginning of 1916 he will study various ways of transmitting messages by flag, heliograph, and lamp, using codes such as Morse code. Also he has to learn how to use signal-rockets and field-telephones, and carrier-pigeons. One of the books he uses in his studies is Signalling: Morse, Semaphore, Station Work, Despatch Riding, Telephone Cables, Map Reading, ed. E.J. Solano (1915).

2 August 1915 R.W. Reynolds writes to thank Tolkien for sending him another poem (possibly The Happy Mariners). In response to a request from Tolkien he sends advice about publishing a book of poems. In normal times, Reynolds would have advised Tolkien to first publish single poems in magazines, to establish his name; but as ‘the odds are against your being able to have the leisure for some time to come to go bombarding editors and publishing verses’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford), Tolkien should go ahead with his book, though he should not be disappointed if it fails. Fairy poems, Reynolds thinks, are Tolkien’s strong suit. He is not altogether happy with a title Tolkien has proposed for his book. – Tolkien has also consulted Smith on this point, who (in an undated letter) thinks it worthwhile for Tolkien to publish his poems.

4 August 1915 Tolkien rewrites his poem Thoughts on Parade, now called The Swallow and the Traveller on the Plains.

?Mid–late August 1915 Christopher Wiseman urges Tolkien and Edith to spend one of the next two weekends at the Wiseman home in London. He will try to get Smith to come as well. (There is no evidence that the visit occurred.)

9 September 1915 Tolkien rewrites The Happy Mariners, now linked explicitly with Eärendel.

12 September 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, *A Song of Aryador, while at Whittington Heath camp near Lichfield. Later, in The Book of Lost Tales, it will be said that when Men entered Hisilómë which they called Aryador, some of the Elves who were lost on the march to Valinor still dwelt there and were feared by Men who called them the Shadow Folk.

13 September 1915 After a long silence Rob Gilson, temporarily in the 3rd Durham Temporary Hospital, Sunderland, writes to Tolkien at Exeter College, forwarded to Whittington Heath. He is annoyed that he has not taken up Tolkien’s invitation to criticize his poems, as he feels that one of the best things the T.C.B.S. can do at present is to help its members with their creative work.

14 September 1915 At Whittington Heath, Tolkien writes a poem, Dark Are the Clouds about the North.

17 September 1915 Gilson writes from the 3rd Durham Temporary Hospital, Sunderland, to Tolkien at Whittington Heath. He has received a number of T.C.B.S. letters in the past few days, including one from Tolkien enclosing some of his poems. Gilson is about to be released from hospital and will have a week of sick leave at Marston Green; if Tolkien cannot visit him there, Gilson will travel to Lichfield.

19 September 1915 R.W. Reynolds writes to Tolkien at Whittington Heath and thanks him for sending his poems. He likes all of them, though he makes some criticisms. He wonders if Tolkien has thought of a new title for his book.

Autumn 1915 Tolkien and a fellow officer buy a motor cycle. Tolkien will use it to visit Edith and friends when he has leave.

21 September 1915 Gilson writes from Marston Green to Tolkien at Whittington Heath. He has sent telegrams to Wiseman and Smith asking them to come to Lichfield on Saturday (25 September) if possible.

23 September 1915 Wiseman, now at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, writes to Tolkien at Whittington Heath. He intends to be present at the ‘Council of Lichfield’ on 25–26 September. – Gilson, who has heard from Smith, writes to Tolkien that all four T.C.B.S. members can be in Lichfield on 25 September, and asks if Tolkien can find three beds there for the night. He suggests that they have lunch the following day at the Gilsons’ home at Marston Green and a quiet afternoon in the garden.

24 September 1915 Gilson informs Tolkien by telegram that he and Smith will arrive in Lichfield at 10.34 am on the 25th and make the George Hotel their headquarters.

25 September 1915 At 11.00 a.m. Gilson and Smith write to Tolkien from the George Hotel, Lichfield. They hope to meet him at the hotel when they return from sightseeing just before 1.00 p.m., if not sooner. – O.O. Staples, B.J. Tolhurst, and M.W.M. Windle of Exeter College are killed in action in the Battle of Loos.

25–26 September 1915 The T.C.B.S. ‘Council of Lichfield’. This is the last time that Tolkien, Gilson, Smith, and Wiseman meet together before being separated by war, and apparently the last time that Tolkien sees Gilson.

5 October 1915 Gilson, now with his battalion at No. 2 Camp, Sutton Veny, writes to Tolkien. He and Smith have decided that Tolkien should send his book of poems to the publisher Sidgwick & Jackson. Tolkien should not forget the proposed ‘Council of Bath’, and should try to keep both 16 and 23 October as possible dates.

6 October 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien from the York House Hotel, Bath. Smith and Gilson are making a preliminary excursion to Bath and have practically engaged inexpensive rooms in the South Parade for a T.C.B.S. ‘council’ on 23 October.

9 October 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien that he is sorry he has not had time to reply to Tolkien’s impressive postcard. He recommends that Tolkien send his poems to the publisher Hodder and Stoughton, or to Sidgwick & Jackson, and asks for copies of Tolkien’s later poems so that he can show them to H.T. Wade-Gery.

19 October 1915 Smith, now at No. 6 Camp, Codford St Mary, Wiltshire, writes to Tolkien. Tolkien should let him know as soon as possible if he is coming to Bath, and inform Gilson by telegram so that he can book rooms. – Gilson writes from No. 3 Camp, Sutton Veny, to Tolkien at Brocton Camp, *Staffordshire, forwarded to him at Penkridge, Rugeley (i.e. Rugeley Camp on Cannock Chase). See note. Gilson is likely to be sent to the front very soon, and if at all possible would like the T.C.B.S. to meet the next weekend.

24 October 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien at Whittington Heath from the Wisemans’ house in London. He has heard from Tolkien that he cannot join them for the weekend. Tolkien seems to have been depressed about various matters, one of which is that Edith is ill. Smith thanks Tolkien for sending more poems and is particularly impressed with The Happy Mariners and Dark Are the Clouds about the North. Smith and Gilson have not gone to Bath, but on impulse have joined Wiseman in London. There they have reaffirmed the principles of the T.C.B.S. and have decided ‘once again on the work it will have to do after the war is over: to drive from life, letters, the stage and society that dabbling in and hankering after the unpleasant sides and incidents in life and nature which have captured the larger and worser tastes in Oxford, London and the world: … to reestablish sanity, cleanliness, and the love of real and true beauty in everybody’s breast’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).

27 October 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien, giving an account of the previous weekend.

31 October 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien at Whittington Heath, giving his account of the weekend 23–24 October. He was very sorry that Tolkien could not come; he feels that the T.C.B.S. is not complete unless all four are present.

November 1915 Tolkien moves with the 13th Battalion to Rugeley Camp in Staffordshire. – G.B. Smith goes to France with the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers.

November 1915–early 1916 While stationed at Cannock Chase Tolkien takes the opportunity to visit Phoenix Farm, Gedling. Colin Brookes-Smith will later recall that Tolkien arrived on an AJS motor cycle, and one morning allowed Colin to ride it up the road and back. Probably during this period Tolkien also participates in the cutting up of a poached deer, an event to which he will later refer during lectures on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at Oxford. See note.

?21–28 November 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, Kortirion among the Trees (*The Trees of Kortirion); one of its earliest copies will be inscribed ‘dedicated to Warwick’. A fair copy will be dated ‘Nov. 21–28’, and a later typescript inscribed ‘Warwick, a week’s leave from camp – written largely in a house in Victoria Street [where Edith and Jennie Grove live] and in [mine?] in Northgate St.’ In fact Tolkien is in camp on 25 and 26 November, from which he writes on each date to Edith (see below), and in the second letter says that he has ‘written out a pencil copy of “Kortirion”’ (Letters, p. 8). This suggests that Edith knows about the work already, that Tolkien may have begun the poem during a visit to Warwick and continued to work on it when he returned to camp, and that after writing out the pencil copy on 26 November he made further alterations (27–28 November) before making the dated fair copy. – To a fair copy of the poem Tolkien will append a prose introduction which explains that Kortirion was a city of the fairies (later Elves) in the Lonely Isle ‘after the great wars with Melko and the ruin of Gondolin’, built ‘in memory of their ancient dwelling of Kôr in Valinor’ (The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, p. 25). It is clear that he intends Warwick to be the site where earlier had stood Kortirion, whose memory still lingers, and his mythology to be particularly connected with England (the ‘Lonely Isle’). Although the date of this prose introduction is uncertain, its sentimental yet hopeful tone, so like that of the poem, suggests that both were written at roughly the same time. If that is so, several very notable elements have been added by Tolkien to his rapidly growing mythology. On one early copy he gives the poem a subsidiary (but not entirely legible) title in Qenya, Narqelion la . . tu y aldalin Kortirionwen, ‘Autumn (among) the Trees of Kortirion’. On one of the surviving working sheets he drafts four lines of a poem in Qenya on a similar theme (*Narqelion). By now, Tolkien has developed his invented language to the extent that he is able to use it in composition.

21 November 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien that the last he has heard from him is a letter Smith showed him in London. He hopes that Tolkien is no longer depressed and that Edith is now better. – Hilary Tolkien lands in Boulogne with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

25 November 1915 Tolkien writes to Edith from Rugeley Camp.

26 November 1915 Tolkien writes to Edith from Rugeley Camp, giving an account of his day:

The usual kind of morning standing about and freezing and then trotting to get warmer so as to freeze again. We ended up by an hour’s bomb-throwing with dummies. Lunch and a freezing afternoon. All the hot days of summer we doubled about at full speed and perspiration, and now we stand in icy groups being talked at! Tea and another scramble − I fought for a place at the stove and made a piece of toast on the end of a knife: what days! [Letters, p. 8]

He has written out a pencil copy of Kortirion among the Trees; he first intends to send it to the T.C.B.S. as he owes them all letters, then decides that he will send it to Edith and make another copy for the T.C.B.S.

28 November–4 December 1915 Tolkien writes a poem, The Pool of the Dead Year (and the Passing of Autumn).

December 1915 Tolkien moves with the 13th Battalion to Brocton Camp on Cannock Chase.

1 December 1915 Tolkien’s poem Goblin Feet is published in Oxford Poetry 1915. The volume also includes ‘Songs on the Downs’ by G.B. Smith and three poems by H.T. Wade-Gery.

2 December 1915 Smith, now in the trenches in France, writes to Tolkien in care of the 13th Lancashire Fusiliers, 3rd Reserve Brigade, Officers Company, Brocton Camp. He asks for the long letter Tolkien promised in his last postcard that he would send.

20 December 1915–9 January 1916 British and allied troops evacuate Gallipoli.

22 December 1915 Smith writes to Tolkien, thanking him for various letters and commenting on Oxford Poetry 1915 and Goblin Feet. Smith and Wade-Gery agree that they and Tolkien are the best contributors to the volume.

26 December 1915 Gilson writes to Tolkien in care of the 3rd Reserve Brigade, Officers Company, P Lines, Brocton Camp. Tolkien has written to him about some problems, as Gilson remarks on ‘the extra blackness of your fate in these dark days’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). He has just forwarded Kortirion among the Trees to Wiseman, and has made a copy for Smith. He likes the poem very much though he makes one or two criticisms.

30 December 1915 Wiseman writes to Tolkien at Brocton Camp. He has been posted to the HMS Superb. He has received Kortirion among the Trees from Gilson, and will write about it later.